Marko
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "warlike" or "martial".
Name Census estimates that about 4,051 living Americans carry the first name Marko. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Marko today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Marko births was 2006 (138 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Marko. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Marko with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.1K
~ 1 in 84,610 Americans
Peak year
2006
138 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,867
Tracked since 1892
Census
Marko in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,538 people with the first name Marko, which placed it at #3,670 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,670
National first-name rank
People counted
5.5K
5,538 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Marko
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marko is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.0%) and Black (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Marko described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Marko at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.5% · 3,959
- Hispanic or Latino19.0% · 1,054
- Black or African American5.1% · 285
- Two or more races2.3% · 125
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 108
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 7
Popularity
Marko: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Marko from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,041 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Marko remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Marko by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Marko during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Markos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, Illinois, New York recorded the most babies named Marko, while Wisconsin, Virginia, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 154 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Marko
The name Marko originated from the Latin name Marcus, which derived from the Roman name Mars, the god of war. It first appeared around the 3rd century BC in ancient Rome. The name Marcus was a common praenomen, or personal name, among Roman citizens. It was borne by several notable figures in Roman history, including Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous orator and philosopher.
In the 4th century AD, the name Marcus spread to other parts of Europe with the rise of Christianity. It became popular in regions that were part of the Roman Empire, such as Italy, Spain, and France. The name underwent various transformations, including Marco in Italian, Marcos in Spanish, and Marc in French.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Marko is found in the Old Church Slavonic translation of the Bible, where it appears as the Slavic form of Marcus, used for the author of the Gospel of Mark. This translation dates back to the 9th century AD and was instrumental in the spread of the name among Slavic peoples.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Marko. One of the earliest was Marco Polo (1254-1324), the famous Venetian explorer who traveled the Silk Road to China and documented his experiences in the book "Il Milione" (The Travels of Marco Polo).
Another famous bearer of the name was Marco da Gagliano (1582-1643), an Italian composer and organist who was a prominent figure in the early Baroque period. His works included madrigals, motets, and sacred music.
In the 19th century, Marko Vovchok (1833-1907) was a Ukrainian writer and ethnographer who played a significant role in the development of Ukrainian literature. Her real name was Mariya Vilinska, but she used the pen name Marko Vovchok, which means "Wolf's Son" in Ukrainian.
The name Marko also appears in the context of Serbian epic poetry, where Marko Kraljević (c. 1335-1395) was a legendary Serbian prince and warrior who fought against the Ottoman Turks. He is considered a national hero in Serbia and has been celebrated in numerous folk tales and songs.
In the realm of sports, Marko Arnautović (born 1989) is an Austrian professional football player who has represented his country in international competitions and played for clubs such as West Ham United and Shanghai SIPG.
People
Marko + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Marko as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Marko: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Marko?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,051 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Marko going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 84,610 US residents.
Is Marko a common name?
We classify Marko as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,365 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Marko most popular?
The single biggest year for Marko was 2006, when 138 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Marko is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Marko in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,538 people with the name Marko, or 1.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,670 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Marko in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Marko?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Marko appears almost entirely male. Of the 5,530 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Marko?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Marko is White at 71.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (19.0%) and Black (5.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Marko most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Marko in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.5% (3,959 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Marko in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Marko a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Marko in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Marko still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Marko in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Marko can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Marko?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.